UFC interim middleweight champion Israel Adesanya issues a fiery response to Jon Jones.
Prior to this weekend’s UFC 236 fight card, undefeated middleweight Israel Adesanya started things up with light heavyweight champion Jon Jones. This did not sit well with “Bones” who issued a response in trademark fashion.
Adesanya’s win over Gastelum was not that impressive for Jones, who went on to lambast “The Last Stylebender” via a series of response tweets, most of which have been deleted. On Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour, had his turn to throw some heat at Jones, and he did so unrelentingly.
“He’s a c-nt,” Adesanya said of Jones (transcript by MMA Mania). “There is two variables that I never expected in this game; and that was to fight (Anderson) Silva and now it’s to fight Jones. So I have to adapt to that. And for me, I like a challenge.
“So he’s a c-nt, and I say that because he is picking the time where I am supposed to get the most shine to come at me because he is irrelevant.
“No one really cares about him,” he continued. “I am everything he wished he was. I’m everything he wished he would’ve been.”
Adesanya also hit at Jones’ religious practices while engaging in improper activities at the same time.
“He’s all, ‘I want to thank God for whatever,’ meanwhile he’s in the bathroom (makes snorting cocaine gesture), and hiding under a cage to avoid USADA,” he said. “I know some things, the street is talking and everyone knows what’s going on behind the scenes. So I am everything he wished he was.”
The 29-year-old Adesanya sees a promising career in front of him, and believes he is being called out by Jones right now for a reason.
“There is only one reason he called me out,” he said. “I know he’s a man of challenges; I’m not an easy fight but he knows if he is going to get me, right now is the time while I’m… I’m only a year and some change in the game.
“Imagine what I am going to be like in two years. He’s is trying to get this fight early so he has a better chance at beating me,” Adesanya added. “But I am player one and I have the controller and that fight will happen on my terms.
“If he wants to come down to 185, hey, if you want to kill yourself doing it, but eventually I will go up and I like the sound of two belts.”
UFC president Dana White was greatly impressed by Adesanya’s performance, that he is also entertaining the idea of the Jones fight. But for now, Israel’s first order of business would be to unify the 185-pound titles against Robert Whittaker at a date that has yet to be determined. White, however, already declared Australia as the venue.